Project Atlas
by QuiteAlotOfSodaPop
Summary: Whether through circumstance or curiosity two young boys find a kinship with each other. Which would be all fine and normal if not that the basis of their friendship began with their robots.


"Project Giant"

It had been some point during the previous fall that Hiro, trying to remain casual as he tried to slip away from his brother and aunt's watchful gaze, picked up a newspaper and pretended to read it. It was a stupid move because it was the oldest trick in the book and honestly who even reads the newspaper anymore? Except this week among the celebrity scandals and government smear campaigns, there was an interesting story for once.

" _**A Giant Among us?"**_

" _ **Sightings of a 50-tall metallic being have cropped up the the sleepy town of Rockwell, Maine. A fisherman by the name Earl Stutz claims to have initially seen the giant during a recent storm, mistaking it's two blaring eyes for a lighthouse. Since this sighting, multiple sources in the Rockwell area have reported an increase in robberies and vandalism, particularly of metal equipment and structures. Locals are baffled at what or who could commit such crimes. Authorities plea-"**_

Hiro felt the paper being ripped from his hands and replaced with Tadashi's amused smirk.

"Trying to be inconspicuous Hiro?" He deduced, taking a peek at the headlines for himself. "50 foot giant huh?" He mulled it over briefly before shrugging. "Probably an old tanker unit. Those float up on the coast every so often."

Hiro, being a boy of many possibilities, didn't take this explanation so readily and scoffed. "Like a tanker unit could just wash up and not be identified. It says right there that the town is a fishing port, if it was a tanker they would have noticed immediately."

Tadashi read the article over quickly before replying. "So it is. Then again there are probes that are used during storms, it isn't out of the realm of possibility that the fisherman misidentified some old naval equipment."

The younger of the two pouted, feeling a bit deflated that the 50-foot tall robot was probably just some boring sea junk.

Tadashi picked up on his brother's mood and suggested. "Then again... it _does_ say that the destroyed property had bite marks on them. Maybe a robot with a metabolism?"

Hiro immediately brightened up and silently went back up to his room to search for the story online.

It was by this point that he forgot that he had a bot fight he was suppose to go to that night.

 **/X\**

Less than two days later, the newspaper, ("Again always the paper." Hiro grumbled, sitting lazily at the breakfast table) continued the story of the giant robot. Now that there were multiple witnesses, proof was slowly stacking up.

Strangely enough only the newspapers had been reporting the story. Every news site or conspiracy forum Hiro had tried didn't seem to pick up wind of it, and some that did had brushed it off since spoofs had quickly appeared on comedy sites merely hours after any story hit mainstream media.

It was honestly starting to get to him. But it wasn't like he was obsessed or anything.

This time however, not only was there witnesses. But there was an incident. Hiro's attention immediately focused on the headline, continuing to read downwards.

" _ **Power Station Damaged: Is a giant to blame?"**_

" _ **Rockwell experienced rolling blackouts last night following damage of a local power station. Townsfolk fear that it may be an act of domestic arson but Government Agent Kent Mansley assures-"**_

"Hiro! You'll be late for school!" Aunt Cass called from downstairs, shaking the boy from his daze.

Hiro quickly folded the paper and tossed it onto the couch, hoping to read it when he got home.

If not for Mochi deciding that the article would make the perfect kitty litter.

 **/X\**

Okay.

Hiro was getting the tiniest bit obsessed with the metal giant story.

That night he logged onto the internet. The story of the metal creature, albeit invisible to every reputable news site, was still prevalent in a gaming forum made up of teens and pre-teens hailing from the Maine area.

" _My dad's a fisherman and he says it was a satellite._ " One wrote, a troll-face avatar making the age of the poster obvious.

A blue Vocaloid avatar replied. " _I think it was a meteor tbh_ "

" _No no no dudes it was like a metal meteor but it burnt up so now its just like radioactive gak_ " A Vault-Boy icon argued, using a smug emoji. " _All that weird stuff is just the meteor messing with regular metal_."

Hiro felt some of his brain cells die and commented using the anonymous screen name of Microbot. "It _might be a robot, you know like an old navy one? They float up time to time._ "

The thread took a few seconds to refresh and immediately Hiro was figuratively laughed out of the conversation.

" _dude thats so dumb! XD!_ " Troll face replied with multiple laughing gifs.

" _Yeah I bet robots are smart enough to avoid power stations dumbass._ " Vault-Boy agreed, using a middle finger emoji this time.

A new icon, a black and white cartoonish one added. " _Is this Hogarth? Cus you're not fooling anyone freak_ "

" _nah man old Hogfart doesn't have social media, I checked. I don't think he even has internet, just an antenna tv. Straight up stone age I tell ya"_ Vocaloid continued.

Hiro paused for a moment. Not because he was being sworn out online, he had that happen hundreds of times, but the fact that someone else seemed to know what this thing was. Also "Hogarth"? What a cruel name to bestow upon a child.

" _Didn't he get in trouble in class the other day cus he kept doodling a transformer looking motherf***er during movie time?_ " Vault-boy asked, using a curious emoji.

Vocaloid replied with a blurry photo of a school notepad, obviously taken by phone, that was covered in detailed pencil drawings of a massive humanoid creature consuming what appeared to be metal pylons and girders, it's form looming over a forest landscape. " _yeah dude snapped a pic before he noticed. Freaky amirite?_ "

Vault-Boy seemed to pause before asking." _how the hell he know that the power station was hit tho? My dad reported it and he didn't even know till that afternoon ?_ "

Black-and-White cartoon did a shrugging emoji and thought. " _He lives in like bumf**k nowhere dude, think he's only like a mile or two from the station? Think I heard Billy say it was a Russian probe or something and thats why it's attacking all the important stuff._ "

" _in soviet russia robot hacks you_ " Troll-face joked, making Hiro decide to leave the forum upon realising that the next twenty minutes or so would consists of nothing but outdated internet jokes.

Hiro sighed, at least getting some closure that info about the giant was able to be leaked. Albeit through immature pre-teens using a forum in the place of a social media page. Still it seemed that this "Hogarth" (Hiro shuddered and hoped that it was just an embarrassing nickname like what some of Tadashi's classmates had), had most of the answers.

Still it would be difficult to find him if what the others said was true. Then again what kid doesn't have personal information online?"

 **/X\**

Okay. Hiro might be full on obsessed by this point.

Turns out that the only "Hogarth" he could find registered in the Maine area didn't have anything other than a name on a locked school website. No social media, no gaming profiles, not even a freaking email account. Even then after hacking into the school's site, all the site said was that he was a kid about Hiro's age and was a grade or two higher than he was supposed to be.

The grade thing didn't bother him, he had skipped a few himself, but what did bother him was that "Hogarth Hughes" had only logged in **once** in the entire school year, the amount of logins were even displayed alongside the students names. Logins that seemed to be required if a student wanted to freely use the internet from school.

Hiro didn't get it. What modern day kid doesn't use the internet for anything? Then again the guys in the forum did mention that he lived outside of town so maybe he was Amish or lived in a conservative household. Still he doubted that an Amish kid would be well versed enough in sci-fi to immediately come up with "giant robot that eats metal".

He left a four word message on his school account and left the site.

He finally got a break when he found a sort of picture board kept by an "Annie Hughes". Within a second Hiro could identify it as being a "mom/aunt blog". Every picture was of food she had just made and shots of an old 1950s style diner. It seemed from the scarce amount of posts and the crisp pink apron he saw in certain photos that she was a waitress or a cook of sorts. But he still needed to know if she had a connection with the boy he was trying to find.

Suddenly among her most recent pictures he found what he was looking for. The time stamp saying that it had been uploaded a few days ago.

" _Hogarth just introduced me to Dean the scrapyard owner. He seems nice enough._ _Very_ _handsome._ " Was written below the photo, taken a few feet away from where an admittedly handsome looking man with dark hair and clothing chatted with a boy around the age of ten or twelve. Only the back of the boy's head could be seen and Hiro could determine that he was very lean with auburn hair and was wearing simple blue jeans and a red letterman jacket.

"A jock kid maybe?" Hiro said aloud, trying his best to decipher the boy the best he could. "Nah. He's a nerd. What kid talks with adults and enjoys it?"

A new photo popped up when he refreshed the page a few minutes later. It was uploaded just a minute or so ago but appeared to haven been taken the night before. Guess the no internet thing was true.

Hiro involuntary gasped. The boy's face was on full display.

" _Made mac and cheese for dinner. Simple but Cheerful. Not that Hogarth minds. He'd have twinkies for dinner if he could._ "

The first picture was of a pot of homemade mac and cheese that did look very appetising. The second was of the young boy, setting the table with a nervous look on his face, round with a sharp chin. He still had some baby teeth left. And really blue eyes.

Hiro shook his head and began focusing more on the newest photo. This time it seemed to be closer to this very morning and within it held the mythical Hogarth sitting reluctantly at the kitchen table across from a broad shouldered man with ridiculous red hair and light blue eyes. The man was pretending to read a newspaper while the boy pretended that he wasn't there. His father maybe?

The tag said. " _Finally rented out the spare room! Mr Mansley is staying in town for a few days for research and Hogarth has agreed to show him around town for me. He's such a good boy._ "

Kent Mansley. He was the agent mentioned in the papers who was looking into the metal giant case. The plot thickens. Hiro refreshed the page again and was disappointed to see that the board was now mostly Annie talking with her friends on the public messaging system.

" _You bagged yourself a handsome one!_ " Said one commenter.

" _Living together before marriage; Scandalous!_ " Said another with a heart emoji.

Annie herself replied. " _Oh heavens no! Mr Mansley is a swell guy but he's not really_ _ **my**_ _type, you know?_ "

One of the commenter suggested. " _Oh yes I know. Your type is tall dark and artsy._ "

Annie admitted shamelessly. " _Shut it Shelia. He has a nice behind._ "

Hiro decided that he should move on from there and check out the gaming forum. Annie seemed nice, the kind of woman Aunt Cass would have a real ball with, but who honestly uses the word "swell"?

Strangely enough many of the original forum posts were deleted and it was instead flooded with hundreds of messages.

Vocaloid was the first he noticed. " _Dude the f***ing train crashed out in the woods!_ "

Black-and-White cartoon was the next to reply. " _Everyone knows that dude! Old man Frank says they hit something on the tracks. At the crossing near Hogarth's house._ "

" _Sounds suspicious to me._ " Vault-Boy added, using a suspicious emoji. " _And that agent is staying at his house right?_ "

Troll-face confirmed. " _Yep. My mom says he's renting the extra room from his Mom. Real f**kety_ "

" _Weird. You think he found something and the agent guy is interrogating him?_ " Vault-Boy asked, adding a spooky themed emoji. " _We should ask._ "

" _No dude. He's showing the agent around town right now. Definitely screwy._ " Vocaloid confirmed, showing an outsider's view photo of Hogarth and Agent Mansley at the local malt shop, seemingly discussing something. A few seconds later he posted another photo. " _Holy sh*t! The agent dude is straight up yelling and wigging out at him!_ " This photo showed Hogarth behind backed up against a wall with Agent Mansley apparently shouting at him with all his might. " _Oh wait Agent guy just ran into the bathroom, Hogarth's out of there._ "

Troll-face typed out his laughter. " _HA HA HA! The landslide trick, a true classic._ "

The rest of the forum petered into more and more conspiracy theories, most of which were ridiculous like Hogarth being an agent himself, his mom being an agent, the giant being a dormant killer weapon, all that good stuff.

Hiro shut off his computer and decided to hit the hay. Tadashi took the moment to peek out from behind his separator and smile.

Four days without sneaking out. A new record.

 **/X\**

The forum was on hold for a few days. Most of the user accounts were frozen so they couldn't post anything. So Hiro's main link to whatever was happening in Maine was cut off. Annie's picture board was also not updating as frequently, with the most recent post being her wondering why her son kept running off to the scrapyard and the other mom blogs suggesting that he was trying to set her up with the handsome scrapyard owner.

One of the last posts ones to be put on the gaming forum before the account itself froze said. " _My uncles saw it! They were out hunting deer and saw the monster! It was a hundred feet high and made of metal. A kid was riding on it's shoulder! A kid!_ "

Hiro initially brushed the post off as someone screaming for internet fame but then again if Hogarth had a sort of leash on the robot it would explain why he was deliberately avoiding Agent Mansley. And why there was an accident right outside his house. And why he had drawn it eating metal. And why... pretty much everything!

Hiro couldn't help but feel a little bit jealous. Having a 50-foot killing machine as your own personal bodyguard was now on his bucket list.

The rest of the posts were extremely somber, eventually ending with.

" _There's army coming down Culver Road to the scrapyard. Think they found the monster._ "

Hiro suddenly didn't feel like reading any further and closed the browser so he could head to an early bot fight. Hopefully there would be a happy ending to all of this.

A few hours later as a cold snap covered most of the east coast, a massive green light exploded in the sky.

 **/X\**

"The heroic actions of the being dubbed the Iron Giant or Atlas by the scientific community, helped save this small town and by extension the whole country from atomic fallout." The newscaster droned, somehow able to make such a momentous event sound no different from a political debate.

Hiro, Tadashi, and Aunt Cass all gaped at the TV as photos of the giant was shown. All with a boy around the same age as Hiro either at his feet or held safely in his hands.

Apparently Hiro's theory about Hogarth having a leash on the robot was right.

The Giant had gone berserk upon believing that the military had indirectly killed his friend, leading to what was probably the coolest freak out Hiro had ever seen. Through the limited photos provided, none of the Giant himself during the attack, he could see lasers and guns and plasma weapons utterly destroying high-end military equipment. Thankfully there were no tragedies and the boy himself had been merely knocked unconscious and was able to calm the Giant down but there was a small problem...

"When a nuclear missile was launched without proper authorisation, it was set on course for the Giant as it was attempting to make peace with the American military. The Giant, after saying goodbye to it's friend and founder Hogarth Hughes, flew into the sky and disarmed the nasty nuke. Unfortunately the Giant itself has not been recovered since, believed to have sacrificed itself for the good of humanity. We now go to Bird Bradford for updates."

The picture of Hogarth and the Giant standing before each other in the snow stayed on the corner of the screen as a bouncy field reporter attempted to squeeze whatever emotion from the stoic General. The army was quickly packing away with Agent Mansley firmly held in handcuffs.

Hiro silently slipped away from the television and checked the school website to find it flooded with praise.

He left his own message for Hogarth to find amongst all the others.

 **/X\**

Hogarth had finally decided to login on the internet for once in his life. It wasn't that he was computer blind, it was more so up till now that he never needed to truly use it. However his teacher had insisted that he read what the others had left on his page.

Thanks. Praise. Unfounded Compliments. Expressions of pity or condolence. Hogarth didn't really think too deeply on them. He was still trying to cope with losing someone dear to him.

A new message pinged into existence, holding no student or teacher name. Instead it presented itself as someone named Hiro (or perhaps it was a typo of Hero) and said in a few simple words. "He'll come back. Don't worry I believe in him."

Hogarth smiled weirdly when he read that out. Very few people were referring to Giant as a he but this mystery person seemed to have the right idea. He typed back slowly. "Thanks. I hope he comes back too."

"I believe in you too." The mystery admirer replied back, not responding to any of the outside messages from other students wondering who they were.

Hogarth was unable to respond other than by echoing "Thank you." and scrolling up to meet the other messages. He smiled again, it was nice to have some one be genuine with you.

Especially someone who had been sending you words of encouragement for the last few weeks.

 **Notes: Woo! This is my first real crossover fic so please go easy. I love Big Hero 6 and Iron Giant and I always wondered what would happen if their worlds collided. Of course Hogarth's timeline is a bit displaced hence why he's not as tech savvy and why everything is being reported the old fashioned way. Think Rockwell just has a firm aesthetic. It will be a little shippy at points but it will be mostly a childish-crush or more if you wish. Please leave a review and tell me what you think of the first chapter see you later! :D**


End file.
